2/19/2017

Headline February 20, 2017/ ''' *MADE* IN HEAVEN '''

''' *MADE* IN HEAVEN '''

TYPICALLY, KOONS STUDIO produces up to 20 sculptures and seven paintings every year.

He works there most days when in New York, sharing a space with McCraw and their assistants.

A reproduction of one of his recent acquisitions -a flagrantly sensual mannerist oil painting by 16th century Flemish artist Bartholomeus Spranger, which will soon join his collection of-

Courbets, Magrittes, Manets, Picassos and Poussins -is propped against the wall of shelves stuffed art books [plus Jimmy Page's memoirs] and tiny 3-D printed models of Koons' sculptures and personal knick-knacks, such as mildly obscene ashtray of his grandfather's that he played with as a child.

Soon, the studio is to move to a larger complex Koons is building on West 52nd Street in Hell's kitchen, as the Chelsea site is to be redeveloped.

McCraw and his studio team also liaise with Koons commercial galleries, which currently include the corporate art colossus Gagosian, its increasingly muscular younger rival David Zwirner and Sonnabend, which first showed Rabbit in 1986.

Commercial galleries usually insist on representing artists exclusively in particular countries, which helps them to control the pricing, flow and placement of the art and enhances their clout with the collectors.

But Koons works with several galleries as well as retaining direct relationships with with the super-rich collectors {mostly gutsy ''master of the universe'' types such as-

US casino Steve Wynn, US mega-investor Steve Cohen and French luxury mogul Francois Pinault - who place his sculptures like trophies in the the grounds of their country estates or in corporate foyers.

To secure a new piece by Koons, collectors sometimes contribute to the production costs, for example, by investing several million dollars to reserve the right to buy one of a new edition of sculptures sight unseen.

They do so in the expectation that the value of the finished piece will increase and, should they choose to, they could sell it at a profit, a practice known as ''flipping'' .

As a result, Koons collectors have as keen a vested interest in sustaining the highest possible prices for his work as his galleries.

The marketability of most art-world stars falls eventually, as Damien Hirst has discovered in recent years. So far Koons has avoided that fate, thanks partly to his continued energy and ambition, but also to his collectors loyalty

During the week, Koons lives in an Upper East Side townhouse with Justine and their six children, five boys and a girl.

On Fridays, they climb into the ''Koonsmobile'' -a customised vehicle he describes as ''a stretched Sprinter van with captain's chairs and a big television'' -to spend the weekend at the farm near York where his maternal grandparents lived during his childhood.

Shannon, her husband and their three children, Koons' first grandchildren, often join them there.

He bought the farm several years ago, and has restored it, painting the buildings in traditional local shades of red, yellow and white, and buying more land to expand the property of 40 to 800 acres.

Koons clearly relished family life, and revels in the opportunity to share his younger children's early years.

''Last night, I was playing baseball down in the basement with three of my sons, and I couldn't have had a better night,'' he recounts. ''Such joy and pleasure, with our youngest, who's three now, running after us with this bat.''

Childhood remains a rich source of inspiration for Koons, although his passion for art history has loomed ever larger in recent works, like the Gazing Ball paintings he exhibited last year at Gagosian in New York.

Each piece consisted of a hand-painted copy of one of Koons' favorite Old Master paintings, including works by Courbet, EIGreeco, Manet, Titian and Turner, with a dark blue glass gazing ball placed on a shelf attached to it.

Gagosian billed the project as Koons 'dialogue with artists of the past'', but some critics accused him of staging a shameless attempt to aggrandise himself by association with the greatest figures in art history.

Koons is characteristically ebullient about it all. ''I'm really proud of the work,'' he says. It as profound as you allow it to be. The most you open yourself up to it, the more it reveals to you.

You know, an aspect of childhood is about being open to the things that you, love, but kids have that enjoyment kicked out of them

They come to believe in hierarchies; that some things are good, and can be enjoyed, but others are bad.

I'm always trying to make work that is a metaphor for complete acceptance.

Mr Big Stuff : Jeff Koons at work and at play.

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of the World. See Ya all on !WOW! -the World Students Society and Twitter....!E-WOW! -the Ecosystem 2011: